Survival or death of cancer cells after inducing DNA damage has always been a challenge to predict because what decides the survival or death of a DNA-damaged cell has not been unraveled. The figure depicts a new mechanism by which a small heat shock protein, Hsp27, can influence the dying cells to survive by modulating the dynamics of p21 translocation from cytoplasm to nucleus. This novel finding may provide new insights in understanding how cancer cells escape to survive after treatment. For further details, please see Kanagasabai and coworkers on page 1399 in this issue.